Category: inspiration

Mike and I decided to do a fun thing this year. Instead of making a few big, sweeping resolution for the year, we’re doing a different resolution or challenge each month. I love making resolutions at the beginning of each year, but my big plans (lose weight! drink more water! run a marathon!) are normally forgotten within weeks of making them. So I got Mike involved this year. He is the king of sticking to things, so I knew we’d be a success if we did it together. We have all of our resolutions planned for each month, but I wanted to share what we did for January and how it went…

Enter Low Carb January! This one was so hard on me you guys. I love carbs. Breads, pasta, desserts, cereal, grains – the more the better. But listen, I had about ten pounds of baby weight to lose, and I was really hoping that this would get me a few pounds lighter by the end. It worked! Kind of. I mean, let’s be honest, the last couple lbs were most likely from the flu that swept through our house earlier this week. I still have about five more pounds to get back to pre-baby weight, but I’m feeling so good about my progress!

We did have a few ground rules for ourselves and didn’t completely cut all carbs from our diet. I am nursing after all, and didn’t want to kill my milk supply by under-eating. So we kept oatmeal (my breakfast every morning), beans, quinoa and hashbrowns for weekend brunch on the menu.

I’ll be honest, and Mike will tell you, I was pretty resentful of the whole thing by the end (mostly on Friday Pizza Night). We did a cleanse one year when we were in grad school, and I was such a BEAST by the end that I’m surprised Mike agreed to do low carb January. But we did it! Again – Mike is the king of sticking to things. Our normal cooking involves a lotof pasta, burgers, tacos at least once a week, and we religiously make pizza on Fridays. So many carbs. We had to make a lot of adjustments. A lot of meals in bowls (quinoa or cauliflower rice, protein, veggie, and sauce) and chicken with roasted vegetables and a side salad were involved. I also focused on making sure to have lots of fresh fruits and veggies on hand for snacks. One thing I can say with certainty, I could never cut carbs forever and I will never be tricked into thinking that quinoa crust or cauliflower crust is real pizza crust.

I just wanted to share a few of our favorite low carb meals that we may carry over to carb-loving months to come, and just for memory-keeping’s sake. I went ahead and linked to recipes, but we tend to cook without recipes, so they are just examples, not the exact ones we used:

And now, in February carbs are happily back in my life! Mike had a much easier time with this than I did. He said to me multiple times a week, “I mean, I don’t even need the {insert carb}. I could eat this for the rest of my life.” {Insert my groan and eye roll in response} I think February’s challenge is going to be the hardest one of the year – $25 a week on groceries. EEK! I’ll let you guys know how it goes!